INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual property, though a relatively newer term, has actually been there ever since human civilization evolved. Generally speaking, the term refers to one’s creation of anything, tangible or intangible, as a result of the use of intellect . The purpose behind creation is to allow its usability for one or more persons for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
In our everyday life we come across such creations in the shape of inventions, works of art, craft, literature, designs , symbols, presentation of creative nature, images etc. All these are intellectual property of some person. The intellectual property may take the shape of (a) Copyright ; (b) Patents ; (c) Trademarks ; and (d) Industrial designs.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright means right of the creator over his work which is in the nature of literary and artistic works such as articles, books, films, paintings, music, advertisement, computer programs, drawings etc. When a person has a copyright of his/her creation, then no body is allowed to use the work of creation in full or in part without the consent of the creator/owner. The creator may choose to give permission to any one to use his/her work for monetary consideration or otherwise. Any use of the creator’s work without permission may invite legal action if the creator chooses to lodge complaint.
For example, a music producer has created a piece of music and registered it with some Authority/office then this becomes copyright of the composer. Now, if someone tries to copy whole or part of that music then immediately the original composer would come to know about it and upon his/her complaint, the person who has breached copyright could be restrained from using it and/or legal action could be taken by him/her against such person. However, unless the person who has breached copyright, uses it on a mass scale for gaining popularity and/or revenue, there are chances that violation of copyright might go unnoticed. Similarly, a text book writer has copyright on his work, provided it is registered with some Authority. If, however, some portion of text is used by any person without the permission of the writer then it would amount to violation of Copyright, unless taken from platforms such as " Creative Commons ".
The benefit may go to the creator/composer/writer as the case may be in the form of monetary gain or any other way mutually decided.However, practically it is seen that people seldom follow the laws governing Copyright, either due to poor understanding of the topic or simply with a vested interest to not allow the creator any monetary benefit. We, at least should make it a point to give credit to the owner, on ethical grounds.
A copyright over some work may be used by any one who has been permitted by the owner, unless the owner has declared it free for use by any one. In normal course, one of the foremost conditions for use of copyright work is to seek permission from the Copyright owner. or anyone who has been delegated authority by the Copyright owner.
Copyright means right of the creator over his work which is in the nature of literary and artistic works such as articles, books, films, paintings, music, advertisement, computer programs, drawings etc. When a person has a copyright of his/her creation, then no body is allowed to use the work of creation in full or in part without the consent of the creator/owner. The creator may choose to give permission to any one to use his/her work for monetary consideration or otherwise. Any use of the creator’s work without permission may invite legal action if the creator chooses to lodge complaint.
For example, a music producer has created a piece of music and registered it with some Authority/office then this becomes copyright of the composer. Now, if someone tries to copy whole or part of that music then immediately the original composer would come to know about it and upon his/her complaint, the person who has breached copyright could be restrained from using it and/or legal action could be taken by him/her against such person. However, unless the person who has breached copyright, uses it on a mass scale for gaining popularity and/or revenue, there are chances that violation of copyright might go unnoticed. Similarly, a text book writer has copyright on his work, provided it is registered with some Authority. If, however, some portion of text is used by any person without the permission of the writer then it would amount to violation of Copyright, unless taken from platforms such as " Creative Commons ".
The benefit may go to the creator/composer/writer as the case may be in the form of monetary gain or any other way mutually decided.However, practically it is seen that people seldom follow the laws governing Copyright, either due to poor understanding of the topic or simply with a vested interest to not allow the creator any monetary benefit. We, at least should make it a point to give credit to the owner, on ethical grounds.
A copyright over some work may be used by any one who has been permitted by the owner, unless the owner has declared it free for use by any one. In normal course, one of the foremost conditions for use of copyright work is to seek permission from the Copyright owner. or anyone who has been delegated authority by the Copyright owner.
FAIR USE
Fair use of Intellectual property means using the work of creation of a person judiciously, for non-commercial purpose and giving credit to the originator/owner. In every day life, we come across several situations where a piece of work of one person is utilised by other person(s) during the course of their study/job/research/analysis etc. In fact, in the present age, reliability on Internet by persons in different fields is quite common. Now, if the intention is to draw inspiration out of that work, or the intention is not to cheat the original composer/producer/writer etc., then any infringement of Intellectual Property would mean "Fair Use"and is generally acceptable by one and all. If, however, the intention is to cheat the original composer/producer with a view to earn popularity and/or earn revenue then it would NOT amount to "Fair use".
For example if logo of "McDonalds" is downloaded from internet, and confined for presentation purpose only , then it would amount to "Fair use" of the logo. Other instances when
the use of the logo would amount to "Fair use" is the use of logo by students, researchers, in a news item, use for the purpose of comparison with other logos, or to highlight success/popularity of the logo in a study.
The biggest beneficiary of "Fair use" are the students/research community which has to use the works of the owner for study purposes. The owner, in this case, does not derive any benefit other than popularity because he/she could not question any one if the intention of the user is not to cheat the owner of the Copyright.
The conditions which govern "Fair use" are when the intention if the user is not to cheat or derive unfair advantage. Also, small portions of the protected work are allowed with a view to support or refute any topic. However, these exemptions are allowed to the extent that credit is given by using formats such as MLA, Turabin, APA etc. The common factors which decide whether the work amounts to " Fair Use " or not are as follows :
(a) whether the use is for non-commercial purposes ;
(b) how much portion of the work is to be used in relation to the total work of the original composer;
(c) the effect of the use on the original work ; and
(d) the nature of the work
CREATIVE COMMONS
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization which was formed in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred to help the creator to share his creation which could be used by the general public through free legal tools. The purpose is to showcase the work of art/creation for the public and allows the public to even build-upon the creator's work. It also gives the creator the choice to put conditions for use of his/her work. The organization has released many copyright licences, commonly known as " Creative Common Licences" free of charge to the public. The Licence allows the creator to decide how much portion of their creation could be reserved and how much could be allowed to the users. The important feature of Creative Commons Licenses is that it is not an substitute of Copyright, but are based on it. The first Copyright Licences was released in 2002.
For example, Sites such as "Flickr" and "Wikipedia" use many Creative Common Licences as part of their content. The person who visits such sites, therefore, feels satisfied that the content uploaded on the sites are genuine, licensed, and without any legal hurdles.
Fair use of Intellectual property means using the work of creation of a person judiciously, for non-commercial purpose and giving credit to the originator/owner. In every day life, we come across several situations where a piece of work of one person is utilised by other person(s) during the course of their study/job/research/analysis etc. In fact, in the present age, reliability on Internet by persons in different fields is quite common. Now, if the intention is to draw inspiration out of that work, or the intention is not to cheat the original composer/producer/writer etc., then any infringement of Intellectual Property would mean "Fair Use"and is generally acceptable by one and all. If, however, the intention is to cheat the original composer/producer with a view to earn popularity and/or earn revenue then it would NOT amount to "Fair use".
For example if logo of "McDonalds" is downloaded from internet, and confined for presentation purpose only , then it would amount to "Fair use" of the logo. Other instances when
the use of the logo would amount to "Fair use" is the use of logo by students, researchers, in a news item, use for the purpose of comparison with other logos, or to highlight success/popularity of the logo in a study.
The biggest beneficiary of "Fair use" are the students/research community which has to use the works of the owner for study purposes. The owner, in this case, does not derive any benefit other than popularity because he/she could not question any one if the intention of the user is not to cheat the owner of the Copyright.
The conditions which govern "Fair use" are when the intention if the user is not to cheat or derive unfair advantage. Also, small portions of the protected work are allowed with a view to support or refute any topic. However, these exemptions are allowed to the extent that credit is given by using formats such as MLA, Turabin, APA etc. The common factors which decide whether the work amounts to " Fair Use " or not are as follows :
(a) whether the use is for non-commercial purposes ;
(b) how much portion of the work is to be used in relation to the total work of the original composer;
(c) the effect of the use on the original work ; and
(d) the nature of the work
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization which was formed in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred to help the creator to share his creation which could be used by the general public through free legal tools. The purpose is to showcase the work of art/creation for the public and allows the public to even build-upon the creator's work. It also gives the creator the choice to put conditions for use of his/her work. The organization has released many copyright licences, commonly known as " Creative Common Licences" free of charge to the public. The Licence allows the creator to decide how much portion of their creation could be reserved and how much could be allowed to the users. The important feature of Creative Commons Licenses is that it is not an substitute of Copyright, but are based on it. The first Copyright Licences was released in 2002.
For example, Sites such as "Flickr" and "Wikipedia" use many Creative Common Licences as part of their content. The person who visits such sites, therefore, feels satisfied that the content uploaded on the sites are genuine, licensed, and without any legal hurdles.
The biggest advantage of Creative Commons Licenses is it is free for any one. And it gives any one the right to remix, share, and reuse in a legal way. It is available online. The Licences are used by over fifty countries around the world.Many educational institutions world over use Creative Common Licences. The Licences easily describe how and to what extent the creator allows his/her work to be used by others.
Creative Commons Licences which provide access to a creator's work may be available with a pre-condition - " Some rights reserved " - meaning thereby that the creator intends to allow access to his/her work as per the individual's decision. Also, the user has to use discretion about the veracity of information supposedly originated by the creator and its relevance to the user.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
It means any material in the form of text, images, ideas, discoveries etc which is not protected by Intellectual Property Rights ( because the copyrights or patents have expired )and free to use or build upon by any one. The user does not require prior permission to use the work which is available on Public Domain. It is, however, possible that a work on Public Domain may be either totally free, or charged some amount.
For example, the works of "Charles Dickens" despite being in Public Domain is chargeable on some cites. On the contrary, however, works like " A Tale of Two Cities " are freely available as also the works of "Shakespeare" and "Beethoven".
The biggest beneficiary of Public Domain are the students, researchers, journalists etc. who require a lot of text and images which are largely royalty- free in support of their articles, blogs, thesis etc. Also, the available stuff on the Public Domain is so large and varied that it provides ample opportunity to the user to select the stuff of one's choice. However, the professional touch on any work may be missing, especially in image and music files, because a lot of stuff created by amateur photographers, artists may lack desired skills. Cost saving is another biggest advantage of Public Domain. Given the fact that a large number of text material, images, sound clips, music files etc are available on Public Domain, therefore, the user is more likely to find the stuff of his/her use at nor or very little cost. Thus the use of Public Domain is cost effective to the user.
The material available on the Public Domain may be subjected to the policies of the Govt. Thus, while a certain piece of material may be totally free in one country, the same material may or may not be available totally free in another country. Also, all types of material need not necessarily be accessible in every country.
WORKS CITED-
"World Intellectual Property Organization." What Is Intellectual Property?
N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2015.
"Worls Trade Organisation." What Are Intellectual Property Rights.
N.p., n.d. Web.
"Open Mena." Openmena.net. N.p., n.d. Web.
link- http://openmena.net/en/public-domain-mena/
Did you refer to any sources when you were preparing this blogpost? You haven't given any attribution.
ReplyDeleteYou missed Fair Use, and therefore have received 0 for that section.
Please read the instructions more carefully, you have not given examples that show your understanding.
This is much improved Aayushi. Watch the formatting of your references.
ReplyDelete